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Thursday, February 8, 2018

WELCOME to the fifth Sun versus Snow agent round! Yep, Amy and I have been holding this contest for five years now. Allow me to think about how far we've come and how many success stories have come out of these contests. Maybe people have gone from writers to published authors in those five years, including myself and Amy.

Much has changed. But much stays the same.

Today, when we're expecting a foot of snow, can you say omen!, is the day our amazing agentscan begin reading the entries and making requests. Not only will they see the 16 amazing entries here, but they can also make requests for Team Sun over at Amy Trueblood's blog!

As the agents move through the entries, please remember that contests are subjective. Our agents have a definitive idea of what they would like for their list. If they do not request, it DOES NOT mean the entry was not worthy. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep querying and NEVER GIVE UP!

Before Team Snow freezes out Team Sun, here are some guidelines to remember:

There isno commentingin this round except for agents. Sorry, but no cheerleading as this may lead to an unconscious bias.

We are happy to see and retweet your thoughts and cheers over on Twitter under the #sunvssnow tag! That’s the place to hang out and have fun! I hope to see my Team Snow members present with their snow hats and mittens! We have a blizzard of amazing entries that are going to completely obscure Team Sun!

Watch both my and Amy’s Twitter feed as we will be tweeting when an agent makes an appearance!

Agents will consider entries at both the blogs regardless of whether they are Sun or Snow fans. Amy and I are hoping the agents go crazy with the requests! There is amazing talent on both our teams!

Good luck to all! And get out your snowballs and thermals because Team Snow is taking no prisoners!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Everyone's journey is different. I hope this one that started with Query Kombat 2016 will provide you with a dose of inspiration on a dark winter day.

In February 2016, I watched a television show called My Strange Inheritance, where a man
inherited letters between his deceased uncle’s mother and JFK. After her son, a
navy seaman under JFK’s command during WWII, died during the attack on their PT
boat, then Lieutenant John Kennedy wrote a letter of condolences. The woman
wrote back and the two corresponded even after JFK became President of the
United States. JFK helped the woman receive her Social Security payments at one
point. I thought this would make a great novel, but I wrote middle grade
fiction so I needed to alter the concept. It inspired me to write it from the
prospective of a child whose father died in the war. The first draft was
finished in two weeks and then I revised it to what I thought was query ready
(boy was I wrong).

In May 2016, I entered my manuscript into Query Kombat
and was thrilled when my manuscript appeared as a selected entry into the
contest on May 26, 2016. I was on Laura’s team. In the first round, my query
and first 250 words was pitted against an entry that dripped with voice. I lost
the first round in a landslide. That was the end. So I thought.

A few days later, while out to lunch during my day job,
I received an email from Laura asking if I would like to be a host save because
one of her entries received an offer. I jumped at the chance. It meant I would
be included in the agent round, but I would not be competing in any further
rounds. The benefit of being the host save is that the agent requests would be
available for me to see and respond to while the other rounds were still
ongoing. I was blown away to receive 11 requests from Query Kombat, one of the
requests being from Caitlen from LKG. That was it. I would surely get at least
one agent offer from one of the 11 requests. So I thought. I was so wrong.

Over time, my requests came back as rejections. I
entered my manuscript into Pitch Wars 2016, and was not picked, but two great
things came out of it. First, one of the mentors, I knew from a Facebook group,
agreed to be an unofficial mentor to me. Secondly, the mentor and her partner
suggested that two other writers and I explore becoming critique partners. The three
of us connected by email and hit it off. I was so lucky to gain two critique
partners who wrote such beautiful prose; especially since my writing was more
like cave drawings than their poetry. After working with the Pitch Wars mentor
and my critique partners, I was ready to query again. I received a fair amount
of full requests from agents, but they all passed. One agent who passed took
the time to give me valuable feedback. I revised again, taking my manuscript
from 34,000 words to over 50,000 words, adding prose chapters to my epistolary
novel.

I was ready to query again. Still I received more full
requests, which ended in rejections but I did receive an R&R from an agent.
I revised again and sent it back. She liked the changes but I missed the mark so
she gave me further feedback, which led me to revise yet again.

On October 31, 2017, I decided to query Lauren Galit
from LKG Agency. Even though Caitlen from LKG Agency requested and passed on my
manuscript from Query Kombat, I reasoned it was practically a completely
different manuscript (which it was) and there was nothing saying they were a
one and done agency—that you cannot query another agent from the same agency
after a pass.

I watched the data explorer on Query Tracker for
Lauren and noticed that she responded quickly when she requested more of a
manuscript. A few queries that were sent after mine received full requests
after just one day while the date of my query slipped further and further away.
That was it; it had to be a pass. So I thought.

On November 29, 2017, Lauren requested the full
manuscript, which I sent the same day. On December 14, 2017, I received an
email from Lauren requesting a telephone call. I was thrilled. After all this
time, this was it. So I thought.

On December 15, 2017, after a night with almost no
sleep due to nerves, I took a call from Lauren. She said Caitlyn remembered my
manuscript from when I submitted it during Query Kombat and noticed how much
different it was. Lauren was such a pleasant person and had such great things to
say about my manuscript but also pointed out its flaws. I agreed with all the
changes that Lauren suggested. Her comments and advice were well thought out
and resonated with me, so when she asked for an R&R for one chapter to see
how I handled the revision, I jumped on the opportunity, hoping the R&R was
not a slow no.

I worked over the weekend revising two chapters and
writing a completely new scene that Lauren suggested. On December 18, 2017, I
sent the revision to Lauren. On December 20, 2017, Lauren sent a second email
saying she liked the revision and wanted to set up another call. This was it;
it had to be an offer, right? Or so I thought. This time my thought was
correct, because on December 21, 2017, I took my second call from Lauren and it
was an offer of representation. Since it was close to the holidays, Lauren gave
me two weeks to hear back from the three agents that still had my manuscript. On
January 2, 2018, I emailed Lauren and accepted her offer.

It was a long, slow journey,
in which I tried to give up on my
manuscript several times, but due to encouragement from my critique partners
and constructive feedback from rejecting agents at just the right time, I did
not give up and have a terrific agent as a result. I could not have done it
without Laura, Michelle, and Michael from Query Kombat who started the journey
with me and for all the help from friends along the way.

___________________________________________________________

Rick Wheeler lives in Northern California in a
multigenerational household. When he is not writing middle grade fiction, he
works with at risk youth as a Deputy Probation Officer. He enjoys listening to
classic rock, hanging out with his dog, and having tea parties with his
granddaughters, not necessarily in that order.